i have had Cubase Artist 6 for about 18 x months now and i am trying to learn more about Mixing etc (as it is all quite new to me). i am eventually planning to kit out an area of my very small flat with some accoustic treatment and a pair of near field monitors.

i have asked a few people in the industry via You Tube and also people i know here in the UK on this (below) particular matter, but to be honest nobody has yet given me a clear answer and recommeded a single product. i just receive elusive type answers to what i thought was a basic question.

So, i am looking to purchase a pair of dedicated Mixing headphones but i am really not sure what to buy. At the moment i want to learn how to Mix via headphones and i always listen to music via headphones (so they would get lots of use). i am guessing i need Flat Response headphones but apart from that i am pretty clueless (esp. regarding makes and models).

i know there is something of a dividing line between those who like to Mix with headphones and those who do not.

Closed Headphones are constructed in such a way so as to prevent sound leaking out (and by the same token to prevent extraneous sound i.e. blocking, coming in) and are therefore good for recording where you don't want the artist's cue bleeding into the mic. They tend however, to be somewhat fatiguing because of this isolation from the surrounding environment.
Open headphones allow extraneous sound in but also leak sound out. They are prefered by many however for mixing as they can be worn for longer periods of time, because they less fatiguing; feel more natural and less isolated, plus they are usually physically lighter.
Semi open, as you might guess, are designed to be somewhere in between these two types.

"...yes I think it can be easily done, just take everything down to Highway 61."

Headphones are a particularly personal item of gear, and to ask for opinions on which are best is an ambiguous question, you'll get near as many opinions as there are makes and models.
If your interested, I use AKG K271MkII (Closed) for tracking and K601 (Open) for mixing.
I'm not however going to try and persuade your decision, by telling you to get them too.
I recommend to anybody that they actually find a store with a good selection of namebrand "studio" or "reference" fullrange phones and try them on for a while and listen to some reference material that you are familiar with (I'd be leary about buying them online!) Ideal would be if you could take a couple of models home with you to try and then return the ones you decide against.
Remember always however, that regardless of what you use (even monitors) the key to mixing is in the translation to other reproduction configurations. Always mix down a test version of your projects and listen to them on other systems (livingroom HIFI, in your Car, MP3 player on earbuds, at the beach or in the garden out in the open etc.). You have to get to know your chosen monitors, and because of their very nature this is even more critical with headphones.

Last edited by BriHar on Mon May 20, 2013 10:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

"...yes I think it can be easily done, just take everything down to Highway 61."

Yes, i do agree with what you are saying and i can also tell that you are speaking from experience. A few people have told me to go to a music shop to try-before-buy. There problem here (without wishing to put myself down) is that in all honesty i don't really know what i should be listening for !! In the same way that if my dad took me to a music shop to buy a keyboard before my very first paino lesson, well obviously i would be clueless !! Just from reading these replies i am 100% more knowledgable about the topic so i am slowly getting to grips with the makes, models and terminology.

The Beyerdynamics got very good reviews in the various article i have read -

yes they are great headphones I use them most, if you went for a pair of them as a midrange closed cup studio headset you would not be disappointed as they have become one of the industry standards over the last few years

i have been looking at a couple of pairs of headphones and related online reviews.

BeyerDynamic DT880 (250 Ohm) and the DT800 (600 Ohm).

What i don't get is that i think you need to buy a headphone amp (although it says they can run without one to a certain extent) ?? If so, why don't BeyerDynamic include one in the sale of the headphones (or at least as an optional add on) ??

Will driving headphones with an amp make any different to the fact that i am using them for Mixing / Mastering ?? What i mean is will the incusion of an amp interfere with my perceptions when mixing/setting Volumes is Cubase ??

One important piece of information is missing from your posts as well as your signature, and this is your audio interface.
Most interfaces have a dedicated phones output and is usually sufficient without requiring any seperate headphone amplifier. The Beyerdynamic DT880 are no different than most other studio phones in this regard though it appears to be available in a variety of impedance specs (32,250,600). Again you need to check your interface's specs.

"...yes I think it can be easily done, just take everything down to Highway 61."

So if you want a beyerdynamic amplifier to drive your phones, this is no problem! But you don´t need one necessarily. Any headphone output can drive a 600 ohms headphone, the question is: does it supply enough voltage to drive it loud enough. Apart from "loud enough" being a very subjective factor, it really depends on the voltage, the headphone output is capable to deliver and there is no international standard for minimal requirements.

In general, many battery- or wall-wart powered units work with lower internal voltages (which also may limit their output voltage) as gear with an internal power supply, but as always, this is just a rule of thump. You can power your studio monitors with a 3W triode tube amplifier, a massive Bryston or Crown Reference (or whatever) amp or a regular hifi-stereo amplifier: all three will work, but propably differently.

To our ears, the 250 ohms headphone models are the best compromise between achievable level with "most" headphone outputs and detailed sound. Due to their thinner wire for the voice coil (and therefore lower moving mass), the 600 ohms model sounds even more detailed but may eventually play less loud than the lower impedance version on several "regular" headphone outputs. For maximum level, regardless of the impedance, you will need a dedicated headphone amplifier. Either built-in into a monitor controller / interface or as an external unit like A 1, A 20 and several other amps from other manufacturers.

BriHar wrote:I was going to suggest you try the 250 Ω model as it would indeed be a good compromise. I would also suggest you try it without an amp first before you spend extra money if it's not needed.